WELL, this is interesting. I'm LOST in the middle of Ho Chi Minh city in peak hour traffic. AGAIN! And not only that, but the daily thunder and lightning have begun to rumble and flash in the smoggy sky above me, pregnant with its daily monsoon. Leaving me feeling rather foolish in my slippery shoes.
Inwardly cursing my love of colour co-ordination which has influenced this impractical matter, I quicken my pace and search the street signs for a familiar syllable or two. I vaguely know where I am at least - I'm on a huge street that I had a job interview on this morning. It's close to a huge park, but I'm just not yet sure which end of it I'm at, or whether I'm walking in the right direction.
I'd been doing so well, too. My sense of direction has been so lacking for much of my life that I'd taken to chanting in my head mantra-like whenever I took a turn "right then left then back, right then left then back" but somewhere along the way I forgot how many lefts and rights I was up to, stopped and ate some spring rolls with noodles, and found myself at once in another district to the one I thought I was in and surrounded by 10,000 motorbikes all trying to get home from work before the skies opened.
Anyway, I'm on Nguyen van Thi street(or something similar...) and pretty sure I'm going the right way when the little droplets of rain I've been ignoring suddenly become BIG and MANY. I've never been caught till now, and have often wondered what happens to the throes of bodies on bikes congesting the road. It seems they are all prepared and seem to somehow co-ordinate a huge group pulling over to the side of the road, all pull full body rain coats out of secret motorcycle pockets and then jump back on board and assume their place in the traffic chain.
I find a balcony to shelter under, although it's attached to a starkly lit bright white cafe with various fishy meats hanging up - to dry??? - on hooks outside the 'shop', and motorbikes and other vehicles are coming onto the pavement now to try and sneak up the traffic chain. Across the road is a "Lotteria", Vietnam's version of McDOnalds and I vow not to give in and take shelter there. I wait it out a bit longer, enviously watching a local dude hail down the only free taxi while nearby shopkeepers expertly bundle their wares into plastic sheets and wrap themselves tighter in their tee-shirts.
I give in. I approach the Lotteria, wringing out my face mask as I go, and enter even though I feel disgusting and it smells like deep fried hell. EWWW. Even before I went veggie I hated the smell of these places and now is no different. But I've got a camera in my non-plastic handbag so right now I'm choosing practicaility over morality, and it's either the Lotteria or the anonymous fish factory - both are reeking.
It's SO WEIRD!!! So brightly lit, red and white and kind of fake-happy, with a technicolour menu and uniform plastic chairs. I point to the least fried looking thing, a kind of a green tea shake, probably made with soya milk anyway and tiptoe (carefully) upstairs to find a good vantage point at least.
It's not too bad actually. I sip away and write this down and I see that already, the monsoon is getting over itself. Such violent rain, every day, for months, but over and done within 5 or 10 minutes if we're lucky... I can tell that the rains have calmed the atmosphere down somewhat - it'd been my hottest day here so far, with my only good interview / teaching shirt now in dire need of wash. I'd shopped for about two hours today in search of more suitable things to wear teaching, but try as I might I just ain't Vietnamese size baby, so it's proving to be quite a challenge. After a week here I'm well aware that my 8 months of carefree travelling have come to an abrupt end, especially when my potential employer laughs when I ask her whether my (rather smart looking!) black flip flops would be okay for the classroom. THEY'RE GOOD ENOUGH FOR NEW ZEALAND SCHOOLS, LADY! I want to tell her but instead smile sweetly and play the good teacher game, hoping she'll give me the job.
Back in the present moment, it's stopped enough for me to leave the scent of grease behind, and I see that I've just turned down the right road so should be home in ten or so minutes. Time then for me shuffle off into the night then, VERY CAREFULLY in my impractical shoes. I'm inching down the street the way the locals do when they cross the road in rush hour traffic - one step at a time. Kind of a good metaphor for me at the moment, having just overcome my shock at being here in such a strange hot place after the summer of my life. After almost despising this place for my first few days I think I can begin to like it little by little... as it is now though, I'm stuck between two hyperactive young men playing virtual football and calling across me to each other in this crappy internet cafe, masters on the keyboard but each with a sniffing problem which is driving me crazy, so I better wrap this up and inch myself home...
blessings...
xxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment